• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Oldest Architectural Plans Ever Found Show How Mysterious Megastructures Were Built

August 19, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

In the deserts of the Middle East, you can find vast megastructures known as desert kites that were carved into the rocky landscape over 8,000 years ago. In a recent study, archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest architectural plans detailing how ancient humans managed to construct these colossal structures.

Desert kites were only identified in the 1920s when airplanes flew over the deserts and noticed unusual patterns in the landscape. While their purpose has long mystified archaeologists, it’s now believed they were used as animal traps, placed along migration routes to ensnare herds of gazelle, antelope, and other game beasts. 

Advertisement

They are essentially rock and dirt walls, up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) long, that don’t look like much from ground level, but appear as a colossal pattern when viewed from above. 

Given their scale, it was previously unclear how prehistoric humans designed and created the structures without seeing them from the air. However, the recent discovery of two engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia is helping to explain this.

At Zebel az-Zilliyat in Saudi Arabia, there are two desert kites around 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) apart that date to over 8,000 years old. Here, researchers have also found engravings, measuring 382 centimeters (over 150 inches) long, that appear to be scale plans of the desert kites. 

If this interpretation is correct, the engravings are the oldest known plans to scale in human history.

Advertisement

This was a hugely important time in the human story, when humans were starting to master agriculture and create organized civilizations. The researchers argue the discovery of these architectural plans appears to mark a milestone in human intelligence. Instead of the desert kites being built in a haphazard fumble, the engravings show they were put together in an orchestrated fashion that required abstract thought and bold imagination. 

“These representations shed new light on the evolution of human discernment of space, communication, and communal activities in ancient times,” the study authors explain in their paper.

“Although human constructions have modified natural spaces for millennia, few plans or maps predate the period of the literate civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The ability to transpose large space onto a small, two dimensional surface represents a milestone in intelligent behavior. Such structures are visible as a whole only from the air, yet this calls for the representation of space in a way not seen at this time,” they said in a statement.

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Advertisement

An earlier version of this article was published in May 2023.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Singapore Exchange launches SPAC rules after easing some proposals
  2. Chinese court rules against #MeToo plaintiff
  3. R. Kelly found guilty of racketeering in sex trafficking case
  4. Soccer-Rashford receives honorary doctorate from University of Manchester

Source Link: Oldest Architectural Plans Ever Found Show How Mysterious Megastructures Were Built

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Hayabusa2’s Target Asteroid Is 4 Times Smaller Than Thought – Can It Still Touch Down On It?
  • In 2011, Slavc The Wolf Journeyed 1,000 Miles To Begin Verona’s First Wolf Pack In 100 Years
  • Anyone Know What These Marine “Y-Larvae” Grow Into? Because Scientists Have No Clue
  • C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) Closest Earth Approach Is Next Month – Will We See It With The Naked Eye?
  • In 2013, A Volcanic Eruption Wiped Out Life On This Remote Island. Then, Somehow, Plants Reemerged
  • 1-Year-Old Orca Takes Out A Big Fat Seal In This Award-Winning – And Extremely Badass – Photo
  • Saturn And Neptune Will Reach Their Brightest In Days – And Look For Saturn’s Temporary Beauty Spot
  • Reindeer Bring A Gift Greater Than Any Of Santa’s – Hope Of A Stable Climate
  • If Deep-Sea Pressure Can Crush A Human Body, How Do Deep-Sea Creatures Not Implode?
  • Meet Ned: The Lonely Lefty Snail Looking For Love
  • “America Will Lead The Next Giant Leap”: NASA Announces New Milestone In Hunt For Exoplanets
  • What Did Neanderthals Sound Like?
  • One Star System Could Soon Dazzle Us Twice With Nova And Supernova Explosions
  • Unethical Experiments: When Scientists Really Should Have Stopped What They Were Doing Immediately
  • The First Humans Were Hunted By Leopards And Weren’t The Apex Predators We Thought They Were
  • Earth’s Passage Through The Galaxy Might Be Written In Its Rocks
  • What Is An Einstein Cross – And Why Is The Latest One Such A Unique Find?
  • If We Found Life On Mars, What Would That Mean For The Fermi Paradox And The Great Filter?
  • The Longest Living Mammals Are Giants That Live Up To 200 Years In The Icy Arctic
  • Entirely New Virus Detected In Bat Urine, And It’s Only The 4th Of Its Kind Ever Isolated
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version